WEAPONS OF CHOICE

Rand Paul: Newtown victims being used

'We should make sure that the background checks we have are working'

Published: 04/17/2013 at 2:16 PM

(WASHINGTON POST) With the fate of gun control legislation in doubt, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused President Obama of using the victims of the Newtown elementary school shootings as “props” to advance an agenda that would have done nothing to prevent the massacre.

“I think gun control is a legitimate issue for our country to debate,” he said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday morning. But the Kentucky senator said that looking at the parents of Newtown victims who have spoken in favor of gun control legislation, ”I think in some cases the president has used them as props.”

“When I see the father and the mothers and them testifying — and I know they’re coming voluntarily, and they want to come and be part of this debate — but it still saddens me just to see them, and I think that in some cases the president has used them as props. And that disappoints me,” he said.